Smith: Solidarity a nice start for NFL players

The Dallas Cowboys, led by owner Jerry Jones, center, take a knee prior to the national anthem prior to an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals, Monday, Sept. 25, 2017, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)(Photo: Matt York, AP)

The national referendum on respect or perceived disrespect for our National Anthem came to a temporary close Monday night in Arizona with a grand gesture by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his team that put the whole issue in the proper perspective.

The Cowboys knelt as a team to show support for issues dividing the country and, unfortunately, spurred on by the man who should be uniting us, then stood arm-in-arm for the playing of the anthem.
For me, it was the kind of solidarity we should all show one another. And though I wish I could say, it was the kind solidarity we’ve always shown one another, that wouldn’t quite be true.

We’ve had our moments though.

In the aftermath of Operation Desert Shield-Desert Storm, random strangers brimming with patriotism greeted returning troops daily at airports across the nation out of the goodness of their hearts. We did so once again on September 11, 2001, by rushing to donate blood at the local Red Cross in Wichita Falls and refusing to leave until we had done so because we just had to do something.

Through the prism of those events, the build-up to last Sunday bordered on a tragedy. American citizens, all protected the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, went far beyond individual rights in attempting to legislate how one another felt about what’s happening in the country we all share.

Some of us, in our fervor to be on the right side of the argument, pulled the military into the discussion. In doing so, the fact that soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines promise and swear to defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic and that the First Amendment is part of that very same U.S. Constitution got lost in translation.

The truth here is that we don’t have to accept someone trying to divide us, but so far, we’ve taken the bait. In doing so, instead of Americans, we’ve become liberals and conservatives, snowflakes and deplorables, real and somehow unreal Americans all sniping at the each other from the relative anonymity of the internet.

It’s well past time to stop this nonsense and get back to the country we used to be before ignorance, and overt political incorrectness became the daily norm.

In one gesture Monday night, a football team showed us the way.

Support and listen to one another no matter who you are, what you look like or where you come from and then stand together to regain what’s good about our country. And I’m not talking about making American great again either – it already was and still is. But it’s our respect for one another that we need to get back.

Once we do that, there’s no reason not to stand for the anthem.Stephen C. Smith Sr. can be reached via e-mail at stephencsmith1@yahoo.com or at www.twitter.com/coachsmithworld